Abide in Me...

Without Christ…we can do nothing!

The fruit of the Holy Spirit only matures and ripens with Christ within. It is for our use and for the good of His Body, the Church. What is the greatest of the gifts? Love.

People cannot access God without Him, and consequently they cannot bear fruit. All life-giving things require access to the source of life, Jesus. The dead branches are people who are useless to God’s work—people like Judas, who chose to reject Jesus when faced with the truth. 

Jesus wants the opposite of destruction for His disciples: He wants them to make God’s greatness known. The way His disciples prove to be His is by loving others as He loved them and by believing and proclaiming God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus’ death and resurrection.The Spirit will be their guide in this process. Faithlife Study Bible.

For the branch to produce more fruit, it must abide, which means to dwell, to stay, to settle in, to sink deeper. The way to abide in Christ is to obey. The believer who lovingly obeys the Word of God produces much fruit. Apart from Christ, a believer cannot accomplish anything of permanent spiritual value. The NKJ Study Bible

John 15:4–10 (NKJV)

⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

⁹ “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Galatians 5:22 (NKJV)

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,